Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich

16/8/2014
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
(b Novospasskoye, nr Yelnya, Smolensk district, 20 May/1 June 1804; d Berlin,
15 Feb 1857). Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer to
combine distinction in speaking the musical idiom of the day with a personal and
strongly original voice. Emerging from the background of a provincial dilettante,
though with generous access to local music­making opportunties, he made
himself at home in metropolitan centres and mastered the procedures of Italian
and French opera, and complemented that expertise with skill in motivic and
contrapuntal working as well as instrumentation. His compositions, especially
the operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila and the orchestral
fantasia Kamarinskaya, represent cornerstones of what are known as the
‘Russian classics’, and furnished models for later 19th­century composers.
1. 1804–34.
2. 1835–42.
3. 1843–57.
4. Style and influence.
WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
JAMES STUART CAMPBELL
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
1. 1804–34.
The composer’s first years were spent as the eldest surviving child of a noble
family whose estate was in the Smolensk government. His father retired from the
army with the rank of captain, and several relatives sharing the Glinka surname
were or had been prominent in scholarship, poetry, or in the service of the tsar.
Glinka’s first contact with music was made through servants who sang folksongs
and introduced him to the wider lore of the Russian tradition. Peasant singing
made an impact, too, as well as church choirs and bells, which in
Novospasskoye had benefited from the interest and investment of Glinka's
grandfather. He gained further experience of music by playing the piano (or
violin or piccolo) in small­scale domestic ensembles, and sometimes
participated (on occasion as conductor) in the work of an uncle’s serf orchestra
in a nearby house; this gave him invaluable practice in working with musicians
and in finding out the effects of particular instrumental effects and combinations
across a broad spectrum of music, from classical overtures to accompaniments
for dancing and arrangements of folk tunes. One composition which made a
powerful impression on him at the age of 10 or 11 was the clarinet quintet by
Bernhard Crusell, played by his uncle’s serf musicians, which, as he recorded in
his memoirs, caused him to discover that his heart was above all in music.
Through his father’s business visits to St Petersburg, through books, family
gatherings, the art tuition of an architect engaged by his father, and through the
teaching of his private tutor, the young composer probably enjoyed a more
mentally and imaginatively challenging childhood than one might have
expected. In his earliest days, however, Glinka was kept in a room heated to too
high a temperature, and much indulged by his grandmother. His poor health and
later unhealthy interest in his ailments and potential cures are usually traced to
early conditions.
In 1818 Glinka enrolled at the new Noble Boarding School attached to the
Pedagogical College in St Petersburg. The 120 or so gentry youths profited from
the instruction of eminent teachers of cosmopolitan background, among them
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the poet Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. The course was designed to provide a general
education sufficient for further specialized study elsewhere, and to train future
civil servants; this did not isolate the school from the current of free thinking then
flowing abundantly and which came to a head in the Decembrist revolt of 1825,
but the composer appears to have been immune from at least that contagion. It
was in this period, and outside school, that Glinka had three piano lessons from
John Field, who thereafter left for Moscow; and after studying with several other
piano and violin teachers, he settled on Charles Mayer who developed his
musical gifts substantially and raised his horizons.
On leaving the school in 1822 Glinka spent some time in Novospasskoye,
where he again exploited the chance of working closely with the orchestral
musicians, now tackling symphonies by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and
operatic overtures by Cherubini, Méhul, Mozart, Beethoven and others. In 1823
he undertook a journey to the Caucasus, where the wild romantic landscape and
exotic folk music benefited him much more than the various medicinal waters.
On 7/19 May 1824 Glinka began work in the Board of Communications, one of
those undemanding civil service jobs which all the well­born of Russia seem to
have taken up. From this base in St Petersburg he was able to improve his
connections among literary and musical circles, and with those who attended
high­society salons. His acquaintance with Prince Odoyevsky, Count
Wielhorski, Griboyedov, Del'vig, Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov and
Mickiewicz dates from the 1820s, and he quarried the poetry of the last five for
song texts.
Singing lessons with one Belloli from the winter of 1824 further augmented the
musical skills which Glinka deployed to sociable ends. Civil service, which in
any case had been interrupted by extended leave of absence, came to an end
on 1/13 June 1828, and in an effort to cure his illnesses Glinka embarked on a
three­year sojourn in Italy which had been medically recommended and which
was eventually supported financially by his father. This course of action
provided welcome scope for the further development of his musical avocation.
His companion was the tenor Nikolay Ivanov, granted leave by the Court
Kapella, and they set off unhurriedly on 25 April/7 May 1830. Among the
powerful musical experiences Glinka obtained in Milan were the premières at
the Teatro Carcano of Anna Bolena and La sonnambula. Glinka’s personal
acquaintance with Donizetti, Bellini and their librettist Felice Romani drew him
still closer to the world of Italian opera, though a meeting with Mendelssohn was
not satisfactory for either side. In Rome en route to Naples in October 1831,
Glinka’s music (as performed by Ivanov with the composer) strongly attracted
Berlioz, who was to be of help to Glinka later. In Naples the Russian travellers
gained invaluable knowledge of singing from Andrea Nozzari and Josephine
Fodor­Mainvielle. Operatic airs provided the main material for the composer’s
improvisations and compositions at this time, such as the chamber works using
themes from the two operas just mentioned, a Serenata and a Divertimento
brillante respectively (both 1832).
By August 1833 Glinka had become disillusioned with Italy, and set out to join
his sister (and her husband) in Berlin; while travelling via Vienna he repeatedly
and with pleasure heard the orchestras of Strauss and Lanner. Although his
health problems had remained, he had gained insight into the vocal art, had
acquired intimate familiarity with contemporary Italian opera and its greatest
practitioners, and had composed in reasonable quantity using an idiom which
Ricordi was content to publish. But Glinka did not feel creatively fulfilled, and
conceived the notion of writing ‘in a Russian manner’, rather than trying to
continue as, musically speaking, an Italian. These ideas were sharpened
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through a period of study in the Prussian capital between November 1833 and
the following spring with Siegfried Dehn, whom Glinka recognized as the
musician to whom he was most deeply indebted: ‘He … not only put my
knowledge in order, but also my ideas on art in general – and after his teaching I
began to work clear­headedly, not gropingly.’ This was the result of five months
of harmonizing chorales and working at fugues. Glinka’s replacement of the
earlier Italian style by a more Germanic manner is evident in his song Dubrava
shumit (‘The leafy grove howls’, 1834), and in parts of the projected but
unfinished Symphony on Two Russian Themes (1834). A sense of purpose and
a new seriousness seem to have been formed during Dehn’s tuition. The
composer’s father died at Novospasskoye on 4/16 March 1834, and Glinka now
returned there with his sister.
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
2. 1835–42.
After spells in Novospasskoye and in Moscow, Glinka went to St Petersburg,
where he met Mariya Petrovna Ivanova. They married on 26 April/8 May 1835
and, after conduct by both parties that might well be judged unreasonable,
separated in November 1839 and were finally divorced. During the same visit to
the capital, Glinka attended one of Zhukovsky’s literary evenings, at which he
told the host of his wish to compose a Russian opera. Some of the music for this
opera was originally written with Zhukovsky’s Mar'ina roshcha in mind.
Zhukovsky suggested the subject of Ivan Susanin, which the composer adopted
and carried through. The suggestion was astute, because the peasant Susanin
had by his self­sacrifice assisted in the establishment of the Romanovs as
Russia’s ruling house. Showing the devotion of the people to the tsar in this way
affirmed the ideas encapsulated in the minister of education's slogan of 1833:
‘Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationality’ (or ‘Official Nationality’); Orthodoxy
joined the power of God with that of the tsar (‘Autocracy’), and tsar and Russians
of all classes were bound both by Orthodoxy and by ‘Nationality’ (or ‘Official
Nationality’), an aspect of Russian statehood to which little attention had been
paid until the Napoleonic wars. Besides his high position in the world of
literature, Zhukovsky was also a well­placed courtier and would presumably
have supplied an excellent libretto setting forth this line of propaganda. In the
event, however, the greater part of the libretto was written by Baron Rozen, a
Baltic German likewise well connected at court, with contributions by
Zhukovsky, Count Sollogub, and Glinka’s friend Nestor Kukol'nik. Glinka’s
‘Initial Plan’ of late 1834 described the work as ‘a national heroic­tragic opera’,
and aspects of the oratorio­like conception represented there remained in the
final creation.
The subject met Glinka’s requirements by enabling him to exploit Russian
idioms to give musical identity to the subject. Since the hero and his family are at
the centre of the action, the musical aspects of peasant song are the focus of
musical attention, rather than being peripheral sources of local colour. For the
same reason, they are also treated in an entirely new serious manner (‘Russian
folksong is raised to the level of tragedy’, as Odoyevsky put it), giving Russia its
first serious opera to be sung throughout rather than making use in places of
spoken text. Whereas the Russian peasants are portrayed as individuals, the
invading Poles are shown only en masse, with their stereotyped triple rhythms of
mazurka and polonaise. The most striking aspect of this opera, however, is the
artistry which the composer displays in achieving this first operatic venture – first
both for him and for Russia. Russian and Polish features are absorbed into a
style and structures recognizable to anyone familiar with early 19th­century
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opera. This artistry extends to the inventiveness and variety of the orchestration
and the subtle embodiment of the mutual linkage of God, tsar and people in a
motivic idea that recurs frequently, as Serov demonstrated in 1859. Russian
peasants and nobles are symbolically united in a single nation in the final
Slav'sya chorus (‘Epilogue’), which Glinka called a ‘march­anthem’.
The compositional process was difficult because the music was often completed
ahead of the text. The work went into private rehearsal in sections, was in due
course accepted by the Imperial theatre, and, following the tsar’s visit to a late
rehearsal, was renamed Zhizn' za tsarya (‘A Life for the Tsar’), to emphasize the
political message. It was given its first performance on 27 November/9
December 1836. The première was attended by the Imperial family and
numerous representatives of the court and the administration. It was well
received by the public as well as by Odoyevsky, Neverov, Gogol' and others in
the press.
The success of the opera eased Glinka’s path to a prestigious and well­
rewarded appointment at the Court Chapel Choir, the institution which provided
the men and boys who sang during the Imperial household’s worship and
sometimes at concerts. His superior there was Aleksey L'vov, the violinist and
composer whose work included the Russian national anthem. Glinka was
despatched to Ukraine to recruit singers and he was away from the capital from
28 April/10 May until 1/13 September 1838. His interest in the choir’s work
seemed to decline, and he left it on 18/30 December 1839. This period saw the
composition of a small number of short pieces of church music and the
publication in 1839 of A Collection of Musical Pieces compiled by M. Glinka,
whose 33 items included six assorted piano pieces and six recent songs by the
compiler. Health problems as well as marital and financial difficulties
complicated his life at this time.
Shortly after the first performances of his first opera Glinka began thinking about
his second. There was some discussion with Pushkin about his mock­epic
Ruslan and Lyudmila as a potential starting point, but Pushkin’s death in a duel
on 29 January/10 February 1837 precluded collaboration with the poet himself.
The music was composed in fits and starts over a lengthy period beginning in
that year. A scheme was drawn up by Bakhturin, and Shirkov wrote specimen
texts for the cavatinas of Gorislava and Lyudmila. The music composed for the
latter was publicly performed in St Petersburg on 23 March/4 April 1838.
Fulfilment of requests for other pieces intervened, including the set of 12 songs
Proshchaniye s Peterburgom (‘A Farewell to St Petersburg’) to texts by Kukol'nik
(the music partly written afresh and partly using already existing melodies),
incidental music for Kukol'nik’s play Prince Kholmsky, and the Valse­Fantaisie
for orchestra – a graceful, musically varied piece which anticipates
Tchaikovsky’s ballet music. It was only in late 1840 that the composer resumed
work on his opera.
During 1842 Glinka gradually returned to the capital’s society, from which he
had withdrawn as a result of the breakdown of his marriage, a return in part
prompted by the desire of Liszt to meet him and get to know his music; ironically,
in the matter of styles of piano playing, Glinka later professed his allegiance to
the older, pre­Lisztian school. In due course the opera was completed, accepted,
and first performed on 27 November/9 December 1842. Ruslan i Lyudmila
(‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’) has a fantastic rather than a historical subject, and
justified Glinka in adding two new elements to his operatic resources. Magic is
embodied in richly inventive musical ideas, such as the whole­tone scale
identified with the wicked sorcerer Chernomor. Other supernatural elements are
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represented by, for instance, two otherwise unrelated dominant 7ths linked by
common pitches; musical ideas of these kinds continued to be associated with
fantastic subjects up to Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Some of the characters and
locations which for Glinka’s generation stood for the orient are evoked by means
of, on the one hand, slow langorous music of yearning and, on the other,
extremely fast and apparently primitive dance music; in this instance too
Glinka’s inventions served Russian composers at least until the early
compositions of Stravinsky. A further new and significant aspect is the epic tone
of some of the work, notably the bïlina style of the Ossianic bard (Bayan), with its
infinitely spacious narrative in primary harmonic colours and gusli­imitating
instrumental writing for piano and harp, a style which was later borrowed by
Borodin and Rimsky­Korsakov. While the music of this opera has been
universally recognized as innovative in the highest degree, its plot was found to
be convoluted and unsatisfactory from even before the first performance. If this is
so, then the haphazard and amateurish way in which the libretto was put
together must bear much of the blame. In truth, though, despite its historical
status, the work has seldom been performed in its entirety and, moreover, is
rarely performed at all outside Russia, so that opportunities of assessing it in the
theatre as its composer intended have been few. Whereas A Life for the Tsar
kept its place by virtue of its musical accessibility and its political message – at
least until the fall of Imperial Russia and subsequently for further decades with a
surrogate libretto – Ruslan enjoyed at best an initial mixed success, and then
gradually disappeared, a process hastened by the establishment in 1843 of a
permanent and immensely popular Italian opera company in one of the Imperial
theatres in Russia’s capital.
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
3. 1843–57.
Glinka was much disheartened by the reception of his second opera, and never
again thought seriously about operatic projects – indeed, for a while all his
musical ventures were on a small scale. In June 1844 he set out for Paris, where
he remained for 10 months. Although he met Auber and Hugo, it was with
Berlioz that he spent most time, both in conversation and in studying his scores.
Berlioz included the Lezginka from Ruslan and Lyudmila and Antonida’s
cavatina in a concert monstre on 16 March 1845. Glinka himself put on a concert
on 10 April which included the Krakowiak from A Life for the Tsar, Chernomor’s
March from Ruslan, the Valse­Fantaisie and the song Il desiderio. This earned
the composer a modest success, and also won him a notice by Berlioz in the
Journal des débats of 16 April 1845 in which he referred to Glinka as ‘among the
outstanding composers of his time’. In May 1845 Glinka set off for Spain, staying
in Valladolid, Madrid, Granada, Murcia and Seville. The country and its music
made a strong impression on him, and it was there that he made the
acquaintance of Don Pedro Fernandez, who was to remain with him for 9 years
as friend and secretary. In the summer of 1847 he returned to Russia by an
extended route, arriving at Novospasskoye on 28 July/9 August. The first fruit of
Glinka’s investigation of Spanish folk music was the Capriccio brillante on the
Jota aragonesa, at Odoyevsky’s suggestion later known as the First Spanish
Overture. This short orchestral composition was the first realization of an idea
that had occurred to him in Paris for a fantaisie pittoresque which would appeal
both to ordinary and to better­informed lovers of music. The dance tune with its
simple harmonic outline gives rise to the most varied treatments (in harmony,
counterpoint and instrumentation) within a satisfying overall structure, and
suggests the composer’s delight in the vitality and colour of Spanish folklore.
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After some happy months on the family estate, illness drove him to seek a
consultation with his doctor in St Petersburg. But the illness did not permit travel
beyond Smolensk, where he remained from September 1847 to March 1848. He
then set off for Paris, but in the absence of a passport could go no further than
Warsaw, where he stayed for nine months, during which time he composed
Recuerdos de Castilla and Kamarinskaya. These two brief orchestral pieces
prolong the line of the Jota aragonesa. While the former (also known as
Souvenir d’une nuit d’été à Madrid and as the Second Spanish Overture)
assembles four Spanish melodies in a potpourri, the latter draws together
ingeniously two Russian tunes. Glinka recorded that
‘by chance I discovered a relationship between the wedding song
“From behind the mountains, the high mountains”, which I had
heard in the country [and had used in Svadebnaya pesnya
(“Wedding Song”)], and the dance tune, Kamarinskaya, which
everyone knows. And suddenly my fantasy ran high, and instead
of a piano piece I wrote an orchestral piece called “Wedding Tune
and Dance Tune”.’
The composer’s insight in discerning the similarity of melodic contour of the two
tunes and in forming a rounded structure exploiting that compatibility, relying
substantially on innumerable varied repetitions of the short dance tune (naigrïsh)
prompted Tchaikovsky to note in his diary on 27 June/9 July 1888 that the
Russian symphonic school ‘is all in Kamarinskaya, just as the whole oak is in
the acorn’.
The acquaintances of Glinka’s final years included Meyerbeer (Berlin 1852 and
later), the Stasov brothers (Vladimir in 1849, Dmitry in 1851) and Balakirev
(1855), who in due course came to be regarded as Glinka’s musical heir. In
1850 the First Spanish Overture and Kamarinskaya were given in St Petersburg
in a concert organized by Odoyevsky; Glinka, who was elsewhere at the time,
was delighted by the encoring of Kamarinskaya, though he disapproved of the
performance of the Second Spanish Overture, since he was at that time
dissatisfied with that form. In June 1851 his mother, on whom he had relied for
both financial and moral support, died. In May 1852 he was distressed to
experience A Life for the Tsar in St Petersburg with tired costumes and sets,
poor lighting, the wrong tempo and a miserable orchestral contribution. That
summer he set off again, spending most of his time until March 1854 in Paris.
Returning to St Petersburg, he was persuaded by Vladimir Stasov and his own
sister Lyudmila Shestakova to write his memoirs. On 27 April/9 May 1856 he left
for Paris, intending to stay for a while in Berlin on the way. With Serov and
Dmitry Stasov, Glinka had since the winter of 1851–2 taken an interest in the
compositions of Bach and Handel, and in 1853 Vladimir Stasov had introduced
him to the music of the Italian Renaissance. Thinking that this music had a
relevance for the development of Russian church music, Glinka now turned
again to Dehn, who introduced him to the music of Palestrina and Lassus.
Whatever the results of this study, there is nothing to suggest that his hopes for
Russian church music were realized.
Berlin afforded him performances of Fidelio, several operas by Mozart, the B
minor Mass, and Gluck’s two Iphigénie (both settings). Meyerbeer conducted the
trio from A Life for the Tsar at a court concert on 9/21 January 1851, which
Glinka considered a signal honour. He caught a cold afterwards, and,
weakening rapidly, died on 3/15 February 1857.
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
4. Style and influence.
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It is not surprising, in view of the rapidity and extent of the development of
Russian music after the 1850s, that Glinka has come to be regarded primarily as
the essential forerunner of all that is associated with the idea of Russian musical
nationalism. This view of him is justifiable, so long as it is kept in mind that he is
the precursor of the phenomenon rather than the phenomenon itself. The
amalgam of national subject matter, whether borrowed from history or folklore,
with its extremes of torpor and hyper­vitality, embodied in derivatives of national
musical folklore, with its strongly distinctive harmonic patterns and melodic
contours, is anticipated rather than fully realized in Glinka’s compositions.
His background lies in the music of the first part of the 19th century, itself with
roots in the classical restraint and established, elegant structures of the 18th
century. The early chamber music proclaims its origins at the turn of the century,
or even a little earlier, and in instrumental music the names of Haydn,
Beethoven, Schubert, Hummel and Field should be mentioned in connection
with Glinka’s work. It is striking how many chamber music works Glinka
produced, when that genre was scarcely at the heart of the Italian and French
traditions which in other areas are conspicuous in his music. For all that a work
such as the Septet or the String Quartet in F is scarcely a landmark of the
chamber music repertory, its textures, length and ambition suggest that wide
musical horizons could open up before a dilettante of genius from the Russian
provinces. Such works suggest that the picture of gregarious drifting from a
piano piece for one social occasion to a song prompted by a new friendship – a
picture encouraged by the composer’s own memoirs – is at best an incomplete
one.
Glinka’s early experience of writing for instruments, spreading musical interest
among a group of solo players, and composing on a large scale unprompted by
a text gave him an especially solid foundation on which to place the Italian
operatic techniques so obvious from the time of his Italian stay in the early
1830s. The Rossini style has more of Classicism than of Romanticism in its
standardization and in its method of breaking down a dramatic situation into its
constituent parts and presenting them in a way which is theatrically persuasive
as well as musically satisfying in its contrast and progression. The entrance
arias of Glinka’s two operas, as well as many other aspects of those works,
show a master of that idiom who commanded other musical resources in
addition. Indeed the leading Italian music publisher of the time, Ricordi,
reckoned Glinka the equal of Bellini or Donizetti, except that he was ‘more
learned than them in counterpoint’.
Salient features of Glinka’s style are evident in two fields which he cultivated
throughout his life: songs and music for solo piano. Their usefulness in the
drawing room is clear, though once more – as with Schubert – compositions
whose starting point is modest social enjoyment transcend that objective and
display an integrity and seriousness worthy of the concert hall.
The settings of Italian texts that Glinka made in Russia, and later on in Italy,
indicate his study and cultivation of the Italian operatic idiom. Metastasio
settings one imagines as prentice pieces (again, just as Schubert set some as
exercises), but the aria L’iniquo voto, to a text written by one Pini, an apparently
casual acquaintance made during his Italian travels, has a multi­sectional form
complete with a bravura culmination. The period’s standard genres are exploited
(as is also the case with the piano music), with two barcarolles, a lullaby and a
mazurka of impressive harmonic fluidity to a text by Mickiewicz. A musical idiom
which evokes gentle melancholy through the frequent choice of minor keys, and
when using major keys has early recourse to relative minor or supertonic
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harmony, might seem an Italianate feature, but it is found too in the urbanized
species of Russian song (including the kind known as the rossiyskaya pesnya,
‘Russian song’), a tradition which has a bearing on some of Glinka’s songs,
such as Akh tï, noch' li, nochenka (‘O thou black night’) or Noch' osennyaya,
lyubeznaya (‘O gentle autumn night’). Once more, as with Schubert, now­
forgotten poets occur cheek by jowl with familiar names, including those of
Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Del'vig.
The Germanic practice of finding and maintaining a single musical image
corresponding with the subject also occurs. Just as the spinning­wheel in
Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade (a text which Glinka also set as Tyazhka
pechal' i grusten svet, or Margarita's Song) continues to turn while Gretchen
expresses her love for Faust, so the military march in Glinka’s Nochnoy smotr
(‘The Night Review’) supplies an apt musical context for Napoleon’s review of
his ghostly troops. If the latter is – in concept, if not musically – an anticipation of
The Commander­in­Chief from Musorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, there
are more frequent occasions on which Tchaikovsky’s music seems to be present
in embryo, such as the foretaste of Lensky’s aria in Bednïy pevets (‘The Poor
Singer’). In his cultivation of elegance and tunefulness Glinka is both a child of
his time and a soulmate of Tchaikovsky; the relative rarity of explicit folklore
quotations is another aspect common to their songs.
If Italian bel canto often appears in Glinka’s solo piano music, so too does
Parisian brilliance. Variation sets based on themes by Mozart, Cherubini,
Alyab'yev, Bellini and Donizetti or on folksongs (not all Russian) require of the
executant a light touch and, like most of the composers’ writing for piano, display
thin textures, often with a highly decorated right­hand line in single notes in a
very high register. If Chopin’s sound world comes to mind, it is probably because
of the two composers' roots in the playing and compositions of John Field rather
than direct influence of one on the other. The early variation sets can outstay
their welcome, but later ones offer greater rewards, such as the turn on two
occasions (rather than only one) to the major key in the course of the Nightingale
set. As with the songs, standard genres are used, often of the kind where the
ballroom audibly adjoins the concert hall. Some of the works (the contredanses,
for example) might indeed serve for dancing, whereas others seem to demand
more attentive listening. That applies especially to the mazurkas (including the
Souvenir d’une mazurka, and those in A minor and C minor) and to the nocturne
La séparation; this nocturne has a delicate mobility stemming from a good
baseline whose often stepwise movement links triads in other than root position.
While a few movements have titles evocative of some extra­musical association,
others are preceded by short passages of text: the Barcarolle offers two lines
from Felice Romani, the Variations on a Scottish Theme (The Last Rose of
Summer) are prefaced by verse by Batyushkov, and for the Prayer Kol'tsov’s
poetry is quarried. Souvenir d’une mazurka has both title and preliminary text.
This development suggests perhaps that as he grew older Glinka became more
sympathetic to the idea of making the expression of his art more explicit. In the
Tarantella may be heard the Russian folksong In the field there stood a birch,
familiar from its later use by Balakirev and by Tchaikovsky in the finale of his
Fourth Symphony; noteworthy here is a bold shift from the triad of A minor to that
of F minor, with the necessary reversion to the first and home key skilfully
effected. In this instance a Russian song embedded in a Tarantella seems to
preclude any kind of nationalist thinking. The Spanish strand among Glinka’s
orchestral works is modestly present also in such piano pieces as Las mollares,
an Andalusian dance where guitars strum (in unusually full chords). Though
Glinka had enjoyed the advantage of investigating Spanish music on the
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
ground, bolero rhythms, dissonant appoggiaturas, plucked­string imitations and
so on were by no means unprecedented and are sometimes to be found in the
works of such composers as Verstovsky.
In this eclectic absorption of contemporary western techniques and idioms,
Glinka was a Russian artist representative of the first half of the 19th century. As
Pushkin assimilated elements from West European literatures and naturalized
them in Russia by means of his choice of subject matter, so Glinka drew on the
musical mainstreams of his day and acclimatized them in Russia. While Pushkin
provided his compatriots with models of the historical novel, the novel in verse,
verse drama as well as lyric verse, so Glinka supplied examples of historical
and fantastic operas, musical evocations of the ‘orient’, the short orchestral
fantasy, and songs of various types. Neither writer nor composer approached the
wilder shores of realism (in choosing topics or in detailed pictorialism) or
nationalism (by making controversial political statements). Both were firmly
grounded in the classical virtues of detachment and concern for structural
integrity. Both were later claimed for realism and nationalism, when from the
1860s those values were prized, but the heavy insistence of the preacher and
the social reformer were foreign to their artistic natures.
Almost all Russian composers of the later 19th century – both the Tchaikovsky
and Balakirev camps – regarded Glinka as their forerunner. His heritage offered
a variety of models which were open to creative development in more than one
direction. His harmonic sorcery (in Ruslan) paved the way for Rimsky­
Korsakov’s experiments, and his evocations of the east (also in Ruslan)
prepared ground which was to bear fruit for Balakirev; his espagnolerie found a
successor with Rimsky­Korsakov. His fusion of the European lingua franca with
Russian elements and combination of learning with originality served as an
example to Tchaikovsky, whose celebrated remark is valid beyond the
orchestral repertory he was discussing at the time.
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
WORKS
Edition: M.I. Glinka: polnoye sobranniye sochineniy [Complete Collection of Works], ed. V.Ya.
Shebalin and others (Moscow, 1955–69) [G]
published in St Petersburg unless otherwise stated
stage
all productions in St Petersburg
Title
Rokeby
Description Libretto
Composed Published Produced G
op
W. Scott
1824
Moscow, —
1969
xvii,
139
V.
Zhukovsky
1834
—
—
Remarks :
sketches for entr’acte only
Mar'ina roshcha [Mary’s Grove]
op
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Remarks :
sketches: used in Zhizn' za tsarya
Zhizn' za tsarya [A Life for the Tsar]
op, 4,
epilogue
Remarks :
ov. arr. pf 4 hands, G v, 106; pt. of epilogue arr. solo
pf, G vi, 255
Y.F. Rozen, 1834–6
V. Sollogub,
N.V.
Kukol'nik and
Zhukovsky
fs 1881, Bol'shoy, xii/a, b,
ov. only 27 Nov/9 suppl.
1858; vs Dec 1836 vs, xiii
1856 or
1857
—
Moscow, 8/20 April vii, 3
1947
1836
Moldavanka i tsïganka [The Moldavian Girl aria with
and the Gypsy Girl]
chorus
1836
Remarks :
for K. Bakhturin’s play
Scene at the monastery
Knyaz' Kholmskiy [Prince Kholmsky]
N. Kukol'nik 1837
incid
music
—
1840
Remarks :
ov., 3 songs and 4 entr’actes for Kukol'nik’s tragedy:
Yevreyskaya pesnya used as no.2 of Proshchaniye s
Peterburgom, 1840; other 2 songs arr. 1v, pf, G x,
271, 273
Tarantella
Ruslan i Lyudmila [Ruslan and Lyudmila]
stage
I. Myatlev
1841
piece,
reciter,
chorus,
orch
‘magic’ op, V.F. Shirkov, 1837–42
5
with contribs.
from N.A.
Markevich,
Kukol'nik,
M.A.
Gedeonov
and M.I.
Glinka, after
A.S. Puskin
Remarks :
pt. of Finn’s ballad and pt of Lyudmila’s scena arr. pf,
1852, G vi, 251, 254
Dvumuzhnitsa [The Polyandrist]
op
Remarks :
sketches, lost
fs 1881, 18/30
—
vs 1856 Oct 1837
or 1857
1862
30
vii, 37
Sept/12
Oct 1841
after A.A.
1855
Shakhovskoy
1862
13/25
viii, 5
Jan 1841
fs 1878, Bol'shoy, xiv/a,
ov. only 27 Nov/9 b,
1858; vs Dec 1842 suppl.
1856
vs, xv
—
—
—
orchestral
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Title
Composed
Published
G
Moscow, 1955
Moscow, 1955
Moscow, 1955
Moscow, 1969
i, 129
i, 85
i, 3
xvii, 142
Overture, D
Overture, g
Andante cantabile and rondo
c1822–6
c1822–6
c1823
c1824
Symphony, B
Remarks :
inc.
Symphony on two Russian themes
1834
Remarks :
inc.
Moscow, 1948 i, 193
Valse­Fantaisie, b
1839–56
Remarks :
orig. for pf, 1839; orchd 1845, lost; reorchd 1856
1878
ii, 213
1858
ii, 3
1860
ii, 105
Capriccio brillante
1845
Remarks :
on the Jota aragonesa; also known as First Spanish Overture
Kamarinskaya
1848
Remarks :
arr. pf 4 hands (1856)
Recuerdos de Castilla
1848
Remarks :
expanded into Souvenir d’une nuit d’été à Madrid, 1851 (1858); also known as
Second Spanish Overture, G ii, 143
Polonaise, F
1855
Remarks :
on a Spanish bolero theme
Concerto for orchestra, E
Remarks :
inc.
Moscow, 1956 ii, 71
1856
ii, 185
Moscow, 1969 xvii, 185
other instrumental
Variations on a theme of
1822
by 1856
Mozart, E , pf/hp
Septet, E , ob, bn, hn, 2 vn, c1823
Moscow, 1957
theme from Die Zauberflöte; vi, 13, 20
orig. lost, but written down
from Lyudmila Shestakova’s
memory
inc.
iii, 3
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vc, db
String Quartet, D
Variations on an original
theme, F, pf
Sonata, pf, va
Variations on the song Sredi
dolinï rovnïye [Among the
Gentle Valleys], a, pf
Variations on a theme from
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
1824
c1824
Moscow, 1948
Moscow, 1878
inc.
—
iii, 67
vi, 1
1825–8
1826
Moscow, 1932
1839
2 movts only
iv, 3
vi, 51
1826 or 1827
1839
vi, 55
by 1829
vi, 26, 39
by 1829
vi, 267
1829
vi, 67
vi, 62
Cherubini’s Faniska, B , pf
Variations on Benedetta sia 1826
la madre, E, pf
[5] nouvelles quadrilles
?1826
françaises, pf
by 1828
Cotillon, B , pf
Mazurka, G, pf
by 1828
[4] nouvelles contredanses, by 1828
pf
1828
Nocturne, E , pf/hp
1829
1829
Finskaya pesnya [Finnish
Song], D, pf
Trot de cavalerie, G, pf 4
hands
Trot de cavalerie, C, pf 4
hands
String Quartet, F
1829
1830
1829 or 1830
Moscow, 1878
v, 3
1829 or 1830
Moscow, 1878
v, 7
1830
Moscow, 1878
arr. pf 4 hands, 1830
(Moscow, 1878), G v, 63
iii, 125
Proshchal'nïy val's [Farewell 1831
Waltz], G, pf
Rondino brillante on a theme 1831
from Bellini’s I Capuleti e i
Montecchi, B , pf
Variazioni brillanti on a
1831
theme from Donizetti’s Anna
Bolena, A, pf
Variations on 2 themes from 1831
the ballet Chao­Kang, D, pf
Divertimento brillante on
1832
themes from Bellini’s La
sonnambula, A , pf, 2 vn,
va, vc, db
Impromptu en galop on the 1832
barcarolle from Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore, B , pf 4
hands
Serenata on themes from
1832
Moscow, 1878
3­pt., E
3­pt., a
4­pt., D
vi, 77, 78
1834
vi, 117
Milan, 1832
vi, 104
Milan, 1831
vi, 79
Milan, 1831
vi, 93
Milan, 1832
arr. 2 pf (6 hands), G v, 131 iv, 29
Milan, 1832
v, 9
Milan, 1832
iv/suppl.
Milan, 1832
iv, 81
Moscow, 1878
Milan, 1832
iv, 173
vi, 118
1841
vi, 135
Anna Bolena, E , pf, hp, bn,
hn, va, vc, db
Gran sestetto originale, E , 1832
pf, str qnt
Trio pathétique, d, pf, cl, bn 1832
Variazioni on a theme from I 1832
Capuleti e i Montecchi, C, pf
Variations on Alyab'yev's
1833
Solovey [The Nightingale],
e, pf
3 fugues, pf:
1833 or 1834
vi, 70
vi, 71
Moscow, 1885
by 1844
Moscow, 1885 vi, 147, 149
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vi, 151, 154
vi, 157
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Mazurka, A , pf
Mazurka, F, pf
Capriccio on Russian
themes, A, pf 4 hands
Motif de chant national, C,
pf
Mazurka, F, pf
[5] contredanses, pf
1833 or 1834 1834
1834
Moscow, 1904 1833 or 1834
1834
vi, 160
vi, 161
v, 19
?1834–6
Moscow, 1969
xvii, 227
?1835
1838
1838
c1836
1839
1839
vi, 162
vi, 166
vi, 164
Waltz, B , pf
La couventine,
contredanses, pf
Grande valse, G, pf
Polonaise, E, pf
La séparation, nocturne, f,
pf
Le regret, nocturne, pf
1838
1839
1839
1839
orig. for orch, lost
vi, 188
1839
1839
1839
1839
1839
1839
orig. for orch, lost
orig. for orch, lost
vi, 175
vi, 184
vi, 204
1839
—
—
Valse­Fantaisie, b, pf
1839
1839
inc., lost; used in no.11 of
Proshchaniye s
Peterburgom, 1840
orchd 1845, lost; reorchd
1856 (1878)
Galopade, E , pf
Bolero, d, pf
1838 or 1839
1839
1840
1840
Tarantella, a, pf
1843
1850
arr. 1v, pf as no.3 of
vi, 208
Proshchaniye s
Peterburgom, 1840
on the Russian song Vo pole vi, 217
beryoza stoyala [In the field
there stood a birch tree]
vi, 219
Waltz, E , pf
Mazurka, c, pf
?1843
Privet otchizne [A Greeting 1847
to my Native Land], pf
1 Souvenir d’une mazurka, 1843
?1855
vi, 170
vi, 193
vi, 174
vi, 220
1849
1852
1840–52
Moscow, 1878
Moscow, 1878
1852
Detskaya pol'ka [Children’s 1854
1861
Polka], B , pf
Las mollares, G, pf
Leggieramente, E, pf
1856
Moscow, 1969
transcr. of Andalusian dance vi, 264
xvii, 170
B
2 Barcarolle, G
3 Prière, A
4 Thème écossais varié
Polka, d, pf
Mazurka, C, pf
Polka, B , pf 4 hands
?1855
—
vi, 225
arr. 1v, pf, 1855
vi, 232
based on the Irish tune The vi, 240
Last Rose of Summer
conceived 1840, written
down 1852
vi, 250
vi, 256
v, 47
vi, 257
vocal
for 1 voice and piano unless otherwise stated
Title
Moya arfa
Translation
Text
Composed Published G
My Harp
Scott, trans. 1824; orig. 1862
K. Bakhturin lost,
written
down 1855
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x, 1
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Ne iskushay menya bez nuzhdï
1v, pf
2 vv, pf
Pleurons, pleurons sur la Russie, prologue on
the death of Alexander I and the accession of
Nicholas I, T, SATB, pf, db
Akh tï, dushechka, krasna devitsa
Bednïy pevets
Utesheniye
Chto, krasotka molodaya
Gor'ko, gor'ko mne
Pamyat' serdtsa
Ya lyublyu, tï mne tverdila [also known as Le
baiser with Fr. text by S. Golitsïn (1854)]
Bozhe sil vo dni smyateniya, A, T, B, pf
Pour un moment [also pubd with Russ. text,
Odin lish' mig (1855)]
Skazhi zachem
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Do not tempt
Ye.
1825
me needlessly Baratïnsky
Olidor
1826
Ah, my
folksong
sweetheart,
thou art a
beautiful
maiden
The Poor Singer V.
Zhukovsky
Consolation
Uhland,
trans.
Zhukovsky
Why do you
A. Del'vig
cry, young
beauty
Bitter, bitter it is A. Rimsky­
for me
Korsakov
Heart’s Memory K.
Batyushkov
‘I love’ was your A. Rimsky­
assurance
Korsakov
O God,
biblical
preserve our
strength in the
days of
confusion
S. Golitsïn
Tell me why
Mio ben ricordati
A, T, pf
S, pf
Due canzonette italiane:
1 Ah, rammenta, o bella Irene
2 Alla cetra
Dovunque il guardo giro, B, pf
Ho perduto, il mio tesoro, T, pf
La notte omai s’appressa, SATB, SATB, str,
inc.
Mi sento il cor trafiggere, T, pf
O Dafni che di quest’ anima, S, pf
Pensa che questo instante, A, pf
Piangendo ancora rinascer suole, S, pf
Pur nel sonno, S, pf
Sogna chi crede d’esser felice, A, T, T, B, str
Tu sei figlia, S, pf
x, 2, 6
ix, 23
Moscow, xvi, 17
1894
x, 18
1826
x, 10
1826
1829 or
1830
1830
1827
c1830
x, 40
1827
1831
x, 28
1827
1829
x, 19
1827
before
x, 24
1854
Moscow, ix, 28
1878
1827 or
1828
P.
1828
Metastasio
P.
1828
Metastasio
1828
P.
1828
Metastasio
1828
P.
1828
Metastasio
P.
1828
Metastasio
P.
1828
Metastasio
1828
P.
1828
Metastasio
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c1830
P.
1828
Metastasio
1826
1827 or
1828
Golitsïn
1827 or
1828
P.
1827 or
Metastasio 1828
before
1854
1834
x, 14,
16
1829
x, 35,
38
x, 31
1829
1878
ix, 43
x, 63
Moscow, x, 73
1891
x, 76
Moscow, x, 58
1955
1864
x, 47
Moscow, xvii, 196
1969
1864
x, 42
Moscow, x, 68
1955
Moscow, x, 56
1955
Moscow, x, 61
1955
1864
x, 52
Moscow, ix, 92
1954
1864
x, 50
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Akh tï, noch' li nochenka
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
O thou black
Del'vig
night
The maids once Del'vig
told me,
grandfather
Prayer
1828
1831
1828
1829
1828
Sing not, thou A.S.
beauty, in my Pushkin
presence
Disenchantment Golitsïn
1828
Moscow, ix, 35
1878
1831
x, 92
1828
1851
Zabudu l' ya
Come di gloria al nome, SATB, str
Shall I forget
Golitsïn
A, ignobil core, B, male chorus, orch, inc.
Golos s togo sveta
1828
1828 or
1829
1828 or
1834
1829
Il desiderio [also known as Zhelaniye]
A voice from
Schiller,
the other world trans.
Zhukovsky
O gentle
A. Rimsky­ 1829
autumn night
Korsakov
1829 or
1830
F. Romani
1832
L’iniquo voto, S, pf
Pobeditel'
Venetsianskaya noch'
The Conqueror Uhland,
1832
trans.
Zhukovsky
Venetian Night I. Kozlov
1832
6 studies, S, pf
Dedushka, devitsï raz mne govorili
Molitva, S, A, T, B, pf
Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne
Razocharovaniye
Noch' osennyaya, lyubeznaya
7 studies, A, pf
Pini
1832
1833
Dubrava shumit
The leafy grove Schiller,
1834
howls
trans.
Zhukovsky
Ne govori: lyubov' proydyot
Say not that
Del'vig
1834
love will pass
Ne nazïvay yeyo nebesnoy [orchd 1855, G viii, Call her not
N. Pavlov 1834
119]
heavenly
Tol'ko uznal ya tebya
I had but
Del'vig
1834
recognized you
Ya zdes', Inezil'ya
I am here,
Pushkin,
1834
Inezilla
after B.
Cornwall
Exercises for smoothing and perfecting the
1835 or
voice
1836
Nochnoy smotr, fantasia, orchd c1836–40, G
The Night
Zhukovsky 1836
viii, 93; reorchd 1855, G viii, 107
Review
Comic canon a 4, collab. V. Odoyevsky
Pushkin,
1836
Zhukovsky,
P.
Vyazemsky,
M.
Wielhorski
Velik nash Bog, polonaise, SATB, orch
Our God is
great
V. Sollogub 1837
Kheruvimskaya, 6­pt chorus
Cherubim’s
Song
biblical
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1837
x, 97,
98
x, 89,
90
x, 82,
85
1832
x, 94
Moscow, ix, 71
1960
Moscow, xvii, 205
1969
1832
x, 100
1831
x, 96
1864
xi, 13
Milan,
1834
Milan,
1833
Moscow,
1835
x, 104,
108
x, 123
Moscow,
1835
Moscow,
1952
1856
x, 117,
119
xi, 39
1843
x, 133
x, 112
x, 139,
144
Moscow, x, 151
1834
Moscow, x, 159
1834
by 1850 x, 161
1903
xi, 59
?1838
x, 165
1837
—
fs
fs xvi,
Moscow, 47
1881; vs
Moscow,
1878
Moscow, —
1878
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Gde nasha roza?
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Where is our
rose?
Pushkin
1837
1839
Stanzas
You will not
return
Gimn khozyainu (cant.), T, orch, inc.
Hymn to the
Master
Gude viter
The wind blows
Ne shchebechi, soloveyku
Sing not, o
nightingale
Nochnoy zefir
The night
zephyr
Somneniye, A, hp, vn [also for 1v, pf, G x, 176] Doubt
Kukol'nik
Glinka
1837
1837 or
1838
1838
1838
1854
x, 182,
183,
185
x, 173
ix, 49
1903
viii, 141
1838
1838
1839
1839
x, 188
x, 186
Pushkin
1838
1839
x, 190
Kukol'nik
1838
1839
V krovi gorit ogon' zhelan'ya
Pushkin
1838
1839
ix, 108,
113
x, 180
A. Kol'tsov 1839
1840
x, 199
Pushkin
1839
Ye.
1839
Rostopchina
Rostopchina 1839
c1858
1862
x, 280
x, 194
1862
x, 197
P. Rïndin
1843
x, 277
Stansï
Vï ne pridyote vnov', S, S, pf
The fire of
longing burns in
my heart
Yesli vstrechus' s toboy
If I shall meet
you
Priznaniye
Declaration
Svadebnaya pesnya [also known as Severnaya Wedding Song
svezda (The North Star)]
Zatsvetyot cheremukha
The bird­cherry
tree is
blossoming
Kak sladko s toboyu mne bït'
How sweet it is
to be with you
Proshchal'naya pesnya vospitannits
Farewell song
Yekaterinskogo Instituta, S, SSA, orch
of pupils of the
Yekaterinsky
Institute
N.
Markevich
V. Zabella
Zabella
P.
1840
Obodovsky
Proshchaniye s Peterburgom
A Farewell to St Kukol'nik
Petersburg
1 Romans
Romance
2 Yevreyskaya pesnya [from Knyaz' Kholmsky] Hebrew Song 3 Bolero [orig. for pf, 1840]
4 Cavatina
5 Kolïbel'naya pesnya [arr. 1v, str, 1840
Cradle Song
(Moscow, 1924), G ix, 120]
6 Poputnaya pesnya
Travelling Song 7 Fantasia
8 Barcarolle
9 Virtus antiqua
10 Zhavoronok
The Lark
11 K Molli [based on unfinished nocturne Le
To Molly
regret, pf, 1839]
12 Proshchal'naya pesnya, 1v, TBB, pf
Song of
Farewell
Ya pomnyu chudnoye mgnoven'ye
I recall a
Pushkin
wonderful
moment
4 vocal exercises
Lyublyu tebya, milaya roza
K ney
Milochka
Tï skoro menya pozabudyosh' [orchd 1855
(Moscow, 1885), G viii, 133]
1840
1840
fs
fs xvi,
Moscow, 69
1903; vs
Moscow,
1878
1840
x, 206
x, 209
x, 211
x, 215
x, 220
x, 226
x, 232
x, 240
x, 245
x, 250
x, 254
x, 259
1840
1842
x, 201
1840 or
1841
1842
Moscow, xi, 54
1963
1843
x, 281
I love you, dear I. Samarin
rose
To Her
Mickiewicz, 1843
trans.
Golitsïn
Darling
1847
Soon you will Yu.
1847
forget me
Zhadovsky
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1843
x, 283
1848
1848
x, 287
x, 290
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
Zazdravnaya pesnya, 1v, chorus
Toasting Song
1847
Tyashka pechal' i grusten svet
Meine Ruh’ ist
hin
1848
Slïshu li golos tvoy
1848
?c1850
x, 294
Pushkin
1848
1848
x, 296
Adel'
Meri
When I hear
your voice
The toasting
cup
Adèle
Mary
J.W. von
Goethe,
trans. E.
Huber
Lermontov
Moscow, ix, 5
1960
1848
x, 302
1850
1850
x, 316
x, 322
Rozmowa
Conversation
Pushkin
1849
Pushkin,
1849
after B.
Cornwall
Mickiewicz 1849
Finskiy zaliv [also known as Palermo]
The Gulf of
Obodovsky 1850
Finland
Farewell song M. Timayev 1850
for the pupils of
the Society of
Genteel
Maidens
The Scythe
A. Rimsky­ 1854
Korsakov
Zazdravnïy kubok
Proshchal'naya pesnya dlya vospitannits
obshchestva blagorodnïkh devits, SSAA, orch
Kosa, 1v, SATB, orch
Molitva, 1v, SATB, orch [orig. for pf, 1847]
Prayer
Lermontov
1855
Ne govori, chto serdtsu bol'no
Say not that it
grieves the
heart
First Litany
Pavlov
1856
?1856
Let my prayer
be fulfilled
Resurrection
Hymn
?1856
1856 or
1857
1856 or
1857
Yekteniya pervaya, SATB
Da ispravitsya molitva moya, T, T, B
Gimn voskreseniya, T, T, B
A school of singing
Warsaw, x, 309
1849
1851
x, 326
fs
fs xvi,
Moscow, 105
1903; vs
Moscow,
1880
1855
fs viii,
51; vs
ix, 131
1855
fs viii,
65; vs
ix, 6
1856
x, 335
Moscow, 1878
Moscow, 1878
Moscow, xvii, 112
1969
Moscow, xi, 65
1953
orchestrations of works by other composers
Shterich: Waltz on a theme from Weber’s Oberon, pf, 1829 (Moscow, 1968), G xviii, 1
Hummel: Souvenir d’amitié, nocturne op.99, pf, 1854 (Moscow, 1968), G xviii, 13
Dargomïzhsky: Likhoradushka [Fever], song, 1855 (Moscow, 1968), G xviii, 86
Alyab'yev: Solovey [The nightingale], song; 1856 (Moscow, 1889), G xviii, 89
For a complete list of works, including the titles of fragmentary and lost compositions, see Brown
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GroveO (R. Taruskin)
M. Glinka: ‘Zametki ob instrumentovke’ [Notes on orchestration], ‘Prilozheniye
instrumentovki k muzïkal'nomu sochineniyu’ [The application of
orchestration to musical compositions], Muzïkal'nïy i teatral'nïy vestnik, i
(1856), 21–2, 99–101
L. Shestakova, ed.: ‘M.I. Glinka: zapiski’, Russkaya starina, i (1870), 380, 474,
562; ii (1870), 56, 266, 372, 419–62; pubd separately (St Petersburg, 1871);
Eng trans., as Memoirs (Norman, OK, 1963)
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
O. Fouque: Michel Ivanovitch Glinka d’après ses mémoires et sa
correspondance (Paris, 1880)
[V. Stasov, ed.]: Zapiski Mikhaila Ivanovicha Glinki i perepiska yego s rodnïmi i
druz'yami [Glinka’s memoirs and correspondence with his relations and
friends] (St Petersburg, 1887)
V. Stasov: ‘M.I. Glinka: novïye materialï dlya yego biografii’ [New material for his
biography], Russkaya starina, lxi (1889), 387
N. Findeyzen: M.I. Glinka: yego zhizn' i tvorcheskaya deyatel'nost' [His life and
creative activity] (St Petersburg, 1896)
N. Findeyzen: Katalog notnïkh rukopisey, pisem i portretov M.I. Glinki,
khranyashchikhsya v rukopisnom otdelenii imperatorskoy publichnoy
biblioteki v S­Peterburge [Catalogue of music manuscripts, letters and
portraits of Glinka, contained in the manuscript section of the Imperial Public
Library in St Petersburg] (St Petersburg, 1898)
N. Findeyzen, ed.: M.I. Glinka: polnoye sobraniye pisem [Complete collection of
letters] (St Petersburg, 1907)
M.D. Calvocoressi: Glinka: biographie critique (Paris, 1911)
M. Montagu­Nathan: Glinka (London, 1916/R)
A.N. Rimsky­Korsakov, ed.: M.I. Glinka: zapiski (Moscow and Leningrad,
1930)
G. Abraham: ‘Glinka and his Achievement’, Studies in Russian Music (London,
1935), 21–42
G. Abraham: ‘Michael Glinka’, Masters of Russian Music, ed. M.D. Calvocoressi
and G. Abraham (London, 1936/R), 13–64
G. Abraham: On Russian Music (London, 1939) [incl. ‘A Life for the Tsar’, 1–19,
‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’, 20–42, ‘Glinka, Dargomïzhsky and The Rusalka’,
43–51]
B. Asaf'yev: Glinka (Moscow, 1947, 3/1978)
T. Livanova, ed.: M.I. Glinka: sbornik materialov i stat'yey [Collection of material
and articles] (Moscow, 1950)
A.V. Ossovsky, ed.: M.I. Glinka: issledovaniya i materialï [Researches and
material] (Leningrad, 1950)
A. Serov: ‘“Ruslan” i ruslanistï’ [orig. 1867], Izbrannïye stat'i [Selected essays],
ed. G.N. Khubov, i (Moscow, 1950), 193–253
E. Kann­Novikova: M.I. Glinka: novïye materialï i dokumentï [New material and
documents] (Moscow, 1950–55)
A. Orlova and B.V. Asaf'yev, eds.: M.I. Glinka: letopis' zhizni i tvorchestva
[Record of Glinka’s life and work] (Moscow, 1952, 2/1978 as Letopis' zhizni
i tvorchestva M.I Glinki; Eng. trans., 1988, as Glinka’s Life in Music)
H. Laroche [G. Larosh]: Izbrannïye stat'i o Glinke [Selected essays on Glinka]
(Moscow, 1953)
T. Livanova and V. Protopopov: Glinka: tvorcheskiy put' [Creative path]
(Moscow, 1955)
A. Orlova, ed.: Glinka v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov [Glinka in the
reminiscences of his contemporaries] (Moscow, 1955)
V. Stasov: Izbrannïye stat'i o M.I. Glinke [Selected essays on Glinka] (Moscow,
1955)
E. Gordeyeva, ed.: M.I. Glinka: sbornik stat'yey [Collection of articles] (Moscow,
1958) [incl. complete bibliography of Russ. titles]
V.A. Kiselyov, I.N. Livanova and V.V. Protopopov, eds.: Pamyati Glinki
1857–1957: issledovaniya i materialï [In memory of Glinka 1857–1957:
research and material] (Moscow, 1958)
V. Protopopov: ‘Ivan Susanin’ Glinki (Moscow, 1961)
A.S. Lyapunova, ed.: M. Glinka: Literaturnïye proizvedeniya i perepiska
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Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich
[Writings and correspondence] (Moscow, 1973)
D. Brown: Mikhail Glinka: a Biographical and Critical Study (London, 1974)
R. Taruskin: ‘Glinka's Ambiguous Legacy and the Birth Pangs of Russian
Opera’, 19CM, i (1977–8), 142–62
G. Sal'nikov: Glinka v Smolenske (Moscow, 1983)
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time] (Moscow, 1983)
Ye. Kachanova: Ivan Susanin M.I. Glinki (Moscow, 1986)
X. Korabljowa: ‘Michail Iwanowitsch Glinka und Siefgried Wilhelm Dehn:
Glinkas Studien in Berlin’, Studien zur berliner Musikgeschichte vom 18.
Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart: Berlin 1987, 127–32
O. Levashova: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Moscow, 1987–8)
S. Frolov: ‘Glinka: “Ivan Susanin” – “Zhizn' za tsarya”’, SovM (1989), no.1,
pp.89–91
N. Ugryumov: Opera M.I. Glinki ‘Zhizn' za tsarya’ [Glinka’s opera A Life for the
Tsar] (Leningrad, 1991)
M. Frolova­Walker: ‘On Ruslan and Russianness’, COJ, ix (1997), 21–45
R. Taruskin: ‘How the Acorn Took Root: a Tale of Russia’, 19CM, vi (1982–3),
189–212; repr. in idem: Defining Russia Musically: Historical and
Hermeneutical Essays (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 113–51
R. Taruskin: ‘M.I. Glinka and the State’, Defining Russia Musically: Historical
and Hermeneutical Essays (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 25–47
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